- At least 34 children and one teacher died when the roof of a private school collapsed in Peshawar on Thursday
- More than 50 people were injured, several critically
- Owner Mohammad Khan was arrested and has blamed recent rain; police say the building was structurally weak
- A provincial committee is investigating
A private school roof fell in on a classroom full of children in Peshawar on Thursday morning, killing at least 34 pupils and a teacher and injuring more than 50 others. Authorities and a hospital official called it the deadliest incident of its kind in Pakistan.
The school, Al-Khair, sits in Dir Colony, a tightly packed inner-city neighbourhood. Classes were already running. Teacher Mahwish Zaman, who survived and spoke to the Associated Press from a hospital bed, said the lesson had barely begun when everything came down. By her account the school had around 1,200 students on its rolls.
Peshawar's police chief, Mian Saeed, said about 110 children were inside the classrooms at the time. Most were under 13. At one stage in the rescue he said only 47 of them had been pulled out.
Early reports on Thursday said 17 dead. Then 28. Then 32. By afternoon the AP had it at 35 including the teacher, and some outlets were still running older numbers, so you'll find mismatched figures depending on where you look. Rescuers were still clearing rubble. Some of the injured are in critical condition, which means the toll could rise.
Lady Reading Hospital took most of the casualties and declared an emergency. Its spokesman, Mohammad Asim, said the children killed or hurt were between 6 and 12, with the oldest being 14. In the first tally he gave, six of the dead were girls.
Neighbours got there before the ambulances did. Samiullah Khan, a resident, said he heard the collapse, ran over and helped pull three girls from the debris. His own son goes to Al-Khair. The boy is alive because he'd stepped out of class to get a drink of water.
District emergency officer Iftikhar Khan said at least 45 children had been taken out by mid-morning. Volunteers and rescue workers kept the ambulances moving through narrow streets.
Police and the building's owner are telling different stories.
Chief Saeed said the structure was weak and that heavy construction work on the roof loaded it beyond what it could carry. Bilal Ahmed of the local rescue service told CNN that heavy rain overnight had left the roof unstable. Reports differ on whether the building had two floors or three.
Owner Mohammad Khan was arrested. Once in custody, according to police, he said this week's rains had weakened one of the roofs. Police haven't accepted that as the full explanation and say the investigation is ongoing.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has set up a committee to find the cause. Peshawar's deputy commissioner, Afaq Wazir, ordered his own probe. No timeline has been given for either. Nothing in the public record so far shows whether anyone from the authorities inspected the building or approved the work on the roof.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he was with the grieving families, promised a thorough investigation and said the injured should get the best possible care. He also pledged steps to make schools safer across the country. Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar posted his condolences earlier in the day, when the reported toll was 17, and called for stronger safety standards. Governor Faisal Karim Kundi told officials to make sure the injured were treated properly. Provincial government spokeswoman Samar Haroon Bilour praised the rescue crews.
On the street, the mood was angrier. Residents told reporters that substandard materials were behind it and wanted strict checks on how schools get built. A local official told CBS News the school mostly served children from low-income families and operated out of a fairly small residential building on a narrow lane. Most of the dead lived in the same neighbourhood. People there said they couldn't work out which grieving family to visit first.
Pakistan has had a version of this before. On June 30 the roof of a tutoring centre under construction in Lahore fell and killed at least 14 children. The owner was arrested in that case too, and police said poor construction quality was the likely cause. The AP noted then that building collapses are common in the country because safety rules are loosely enforced and many structures are put up with cheap materials.
Peshawar's toll is more than double the Lahore one
Funerals are expected in Dir Colony over the coming days. Doctors are still treating the seriously injured, and the committee has yet to publish anything. Mohammad Khan remains in police custody.
